Islamic Golden Age and Beyond
The gods were lazing around Mount Olympus, complaining that they got no respect anymore from human beings, who once feared them so much they went out of their way to appease the immortals. “It’s all your fault,” Hera says to her husband Zeus, king of the
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ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE AND BEYOND
THE STORY
The gods were lazing around Mount Olympus, complaining that they got no respect anymore from human beings, who once feared them so much they went out of their way to appease the immortals. “It’s all your fault,” Hera says to her husband Zeus, king of the gods. “If you hadn’t given that silly jar to that female human Pandora and tempted her to open it and let out all the evils of humanity.” “I remember her she was a lovely woman, the first female I had created out of the mud. That was a great trick. It was meant to be a punishment to the humans for accepting fire from Prometheus, who got his comeuppance when I had the fire thief chained to a rock, where his liver was eaten daily by an eagle. That was meant to be eternal punishment, but that rascal Greek hero Hercules slew the eagle and freed my captive from his torment.” Athena, goddess of wisdom spoke up, “It’s all the fault of that guy Thales. He didn’t include us when explaining natural phenomena.” “And those guys who followed him, Aristotle, Hipparchus, and the worst of the bunch, Ptolemy, only made us more insignificant,” piped in Hades, god of the underworld. “Well, I got even with them by causing them to propose an inaccurate model of the universe,” said Ares, god of war. Poseidon, the god of the sea, noted, “All their work was almost forgotten. The Romans tended to ignore the sciences that they did not like and did not understand. Conquer, conquer was all they carried for. I have to admire them for that.” “It’s a shame that guys like Cicero, Pliny, and Seneca couldn’t leave well enough alone. No, they had to ensure that Greek ideas survived”, interjected the messenger god, Hermes. “Well, at least during the dark ages progress of astronomy was almost nil,” said gleefully Hephaestus, god of ice. “That was only in Europe. During the medieval times, the Arabs translated the Greek works and made improvements, without any reference to us”, said Artemis, goddess of the hunt. “Oh, get over yourself,” Aphrodite, goddess of love scolded, “Rather than sitting around feeling sorry for yourselves, eating and drinking till you can’t stand up, make yourself relevant again by helping humans find the answers they seek about the universe and their place in it.” “Maybe,” said Zeus, adding a word that sounded to Chronos very like “Mañana.” During the medieval period, the time interval between Ptolemy (2nd century C.E.) and the 16th century, the major developments in observational and theoretical astronomy took place from North Africa to Central Asia.1 The Arabic world saved as much Greek knowledge as they could, and expanded on it.2 They refined knowledge on planetary movement and used these celestial measurements for religious, 393
CHAPTER 25
traditional, and time-keeping purposes. They used the stars to determine latitude and longitude so that they could accurately pray to Mecca.3 They attempted to create a clear picture of the universe in its physical sense. The Islamic Golden Age is traditionally dated from the mid-7th century to
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